Air Raids over Chislehurst.

My wartime experiences during ww2 by Joy Butler (born 6/5/1917)

Air Raids over Chislehurst.

I begin my story in 1941 at the time we were bombed out of our flat above the United Dairies in Chislehurst High Street in North Kent.I was pushing my pram with two very small children along the footpath beside the pond in the centre of Chislehurst when the air raid siren sounded. We ran to the shops side entrance door to the upstairs flat and crouched in the stairwell, which seemed to give the best protection. Bombs fell onto the public house next door (The Fox and Hounds) and a small shop beside the public house and people were injured in the shop by the explosion. Our flat shook and was badly damaged. The exit door was jammed and we could not get out from the building. So we sat and waited until my husband came home early after hearing of the raid in the area of the Chislehurst High Street. With help he managed to open the door which allow us to escape from the badly damage building.

After living with relatives for a time we bought a house in Woodside Avenue, in Chislehurst where we had an Anderson air raid shelter built at the bottom of the garden. During air raids usually at night we had to hurry into the shelter when the warning siren sounded, if we were slow, the planes would be overhead and bombing would begin. The noise would be deafening with the anti-aircraft guns nearby opening fire and adding to the commotion. The planes often dropped incendiary bombs and I had to climb out of the shelter and place sand bags over the fizzing rocket like bomb otherwise the light would attract more bombs. We were pleased to hear the all-clear siren, which allowed us to return to our house and bedrooms.

V1 rocket attacks took place later and often during day light hours sirens were sounded but occasionally V1 rockets got through without warning, but you could hear them coming they sounded like noisy motorbikes. When the motor stopped everybody caught outside threw themselves on the ground to try to avoid injury. The rocket came down anywhere, with an almighty explosion, which caused widespread damage. Later V2 rockets were used but no warnings were possible and huge explosions occurred suddenly. This was towards the end of the war and fortunately it only lasted a relatively short time. Many people were killed during these attacks particularly in the London area. In Chislehurst a country area then, there were fewer causalities.

Note : This story has been recorded by the son of Joy Butler one of the children in the above story. 1/12/03

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